Two available positions
Two Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions are available at Fera in York, UK. Both positions are of approximately 18 months duration.
Find a brief description of the postions below, and download the pdf by clicking the link at the bottom to see the full advert.
1. Land cover mapping – plant toxin production and impact of policy (ESR 15)
This research position will seek to establish the spatial coverage of land cover relevant to natural toxin production, and in relation to water bodies. The ESR will conduct a high-level review of GIS riskassessment tools to gain a broad understanding of the different approaches and to identify the approach that will be most suitable for the current project given the availability of data. The ESR will seek to include measurements of the biomass of the vegetation. ESR15 will identify likely land cover changes of vegetation as influenced by policy and/or other drivers. This information will be used to develop contrasting scenarios of land use which will then be used to predict the impact of these drivers
on potential toxin contamination of drinking water sources in close collaboration with ESR16 using the information from their database. ESR 15 will actively collaborate with all the other ESRs to integrate the findings of the project overall.
Main duties
The post is a full-time research position (approx. 18 months) and duties will include:
- Searching existing literature, datasets and models to extract relevant information on natural
toxins - Creating maps of land cover related to toxin production/fate
- Estimating land use scenarios in response to policy change/other drivers
- Collaborating with other NaToxAq ESRs to align research
- Presentation of findings at seminars/conferences and writing scientific and/or commentary
articles for e.g. journals, webpage
2. Natural toxin database and risk assessment (ESR 16)
This research position will expand an existing natural toxin database to include plant toxins from across Europe and reported medicinal properties by datamining a wide range of data sources, including citizen science. Information in the database will be
designed to align with the land cover mapping work of ESR15 to apply a simple model to predict relative toxin transfer to water and hence concentrations. ESR16 will assess the impact of land use changes on predicted concentrations of toxins in water, in conjunction with ESR15, and propose mitigation measures.. ESR16 will actively collaborate with all the other ESRs to integrate the findings of the project
overall.
Main duties
The post is a full-time research position (approx. 18 months) and duties will include:
- Searching existing literature, datasets and models to extract data on natural toxins
- Further development of an existing natural toxin database
- Adapting a simple toxin export model in collaboration with ESR15
- Collaborating with other NaToxAq ESRs to align research
- Presentation of findings at seminars/conferences and writing scientific and/or commentary
articles for e.g. journals, webpage
The closing date for applications is 21 October 2018.